After months of negotiations about the series’ future with Sony TV, A League of Their Own will end after season two. The show was just renewed for a season two, but the series will step up to bat for the last time with the four episodes it will contain, via The Hollywood Reporter.
With production beginning on A League of Their Own in 2018, Will Graham (Daisy Jones & The Six) recruited Abbi Jacobson (Broad City) to collaborate on this modern take on Penny Marshall’s (Big, Laverne & Shirley) beloved 1992 feature film of the same name that starred Geena Davis (Thelma & Louise), Lori Petty (Point Break), American singer-songwriter Madonna, Rosie O’Donnell (Sleepless in Seattle) and Tom Hanks (Forest Gump). Graham and Jacobson received the go ahead on development from Marshall before she passed away. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the duo also recruited several members of the former All-American Girls Professional Baseball League to serve as advisers — including the legendary American baseball player Maybelle Blair, who at age 95 came out as gay during the press tour for the show.
The series builds on the subtle nods to sexuality and racism issues that were briefly addressed in Marshall’s original movie. In addition to featuring personal stories of queer players from the league, the Amazon Prime version also examines the unfortunate circumstances of Black women who were not permitted to join the league and instead had to join a contingent of teams that traveled the country.
Showrunner Graham took to his personal twitter to air his opinion on this announcement. In a series of tweets he expresses that this series audience is, “domestic, but [his] understanding is that it’s very big.” He then goes on to say that the narrative that POC/Queer shows is “niche or small if you don’t have data” is “racist and homophobic and all the other stuff.”
A League of Their Own returning for a condensed final season comes as Amazon — which, like other streamers, does not release traditional viewership data — has continued to spend big on well-known IP such as Lord of the Rings. Only time will tell if more series like A League of Their Own will strikeout.
A League of Their Own season one is streaming now on Prime Video.